The Japanese and Chinese comparison shopping search sites are quite different reflecting the different stages of e-commerce development in both countries. In Japan, Smarter.co.jp offers consumers the opportunity to shop and compare products from leading Japanese retailers in the following categories: fashion and apparel, baby and maternity, home and garden, food and drinks, pet supplies, musical instruments, consumer electronics and appliances, and sporting goods. In China, Smarter.com.cn launches with what is commonly referred to in China as 3C channels (computers, consumer electronics and communications) from select tier 1 retailers.

If you’re interested in hearing from the founders of Smarter.com, check out these two interviews (one print, one video) with company co-founders Talmadge O’Neill and Harry Tsao.

This week, both LinkedIn and Facebook are beefing up their paid social offerings in different ways, while Google seeks to cut off Adwords revenues for fake news sites. And might Google be favouring desktop over its own AMP in its upcoming mobile-first index?

Here we’ll take a look at the basic things you need to know in regards to search engine optimisation, a discipline that everyone in your organisation should at least be aware of, if not have a decent technical understanding.